INTRODUCTION TO ISSUE #10

Those involved with Slope have thought a lot recently about the role – and use – of the literary journal, online and otherwise. A key nutrient to this thread of thought was the "Big Small Press Fest" at the University of Massachusetts, which brought together poets and editors and publishers from across the country. (May 4 and 5, hence the tardiness of this issue). There, the validity of online magazines was questioned and challenged. Debates ensued and some of the “print people” walked away, heads held high, confident in the “irreplacability” of the page. One thing, however, became obvious to the “computer geeks”-slash-magazine editors: we can do so much more with the electronic medium, and much more needs to be done with it. We're planning to break many barriers in future issues of Slope.

Our new editors will help take us there – Peter Johnson, editor of The Prose Poem, and Derek Webster, former editor for Boulevard and founder of Chemise. Our increasing readership will help take us there – its commitment to quality writing, its eclectic and intelligent viewpoints, are the greatest motivators for Slope to take new directions.

What Slope 10 continues is the magazine’s commitment to publishing poets who, for whatever reason, are not readily visible on the horizon but must be. Many thanks must be given to Ognjen Smiljanic, editor of the new magazine Tooth, whose Croatian-American heritage inspired and helped make this “CroPoetry” issue possible. There is ghostly and devastating and humorous work from this diverse body of Croatian writers, nearly all of whom have been – until now – unpublished in the “West.”

Slope 10 also introduces a segment called “Focus on New Media,” which is. . .just that. Presently we take a look at Paul Hardacre’s burgeoning CD-ROM poetry journal Papertiger, and plan to profile the “slide books” of publisher/translator Carl Sesar in an upcoming issue.

In short, there’s a lot going on. Let’s judge the “viability” or “credibility” or “respectability” of magazines based not on their media, but how well those media are used to bring The  New to the world.

– Ethan Paquin, 10 May 2001


SLOPE - WHERE MOVEMENTS HAPPEN

Slope is a bi-monthly, online journal devoted to poetry being written around the world in English. We print only new, original and previously unpublished poems. Contributors hail from countries including Australia, England, Wales, Canada and the United States. We encourage new writers, while continuing to publish award-winning and established poets.

Slope occasionally features "sampler" issues. Recent examples include New Welsh Poetry (Issue 8); upcoming are selections of Serbian (Issue 11), Australian (Issue 12), and African poetry. Poets featured and/or forthcoming in Slope include James Tate, Forrest Gander, Tomaz Salamun, Franz Wright, Heather McHugh, Dara Wier, Eric Pankey, Eugen Jebeleanu, Matthew Rohrer, Joe Wenderoth, Mary Jo Bang, Ron Silliman, Ross Martin, Rebecca Wolff, Margot Schilpp, John Kinsella, Pam Brown, Kevin Hart, Lee Upton, Peter Minter, Brian Henry, Katy Lederer, Drew Milne, Mark Bibbins, Bob Hicok, David H.W. Grubb, Susan Schultz, Louis Armand, Christine Hume, Tessa Rumsey, Timothy Donnelly and many others.


SLOPE EVENTS & NEWS

On May 4 and 5, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst hosted the "Big Small Press Fest 2001," a weekend of readings, panels and receptions featuring alumni of the UMass MFA program (and their colleagues) who have gone on to edit journals and presses. Slope was represented in a panel discussion on “New Media, Old Media.” Among those present: keynote speaker David Lehman, and guests from as far as California and Canada. Among the magazines and presses present: Fence, Jubilat, Rain Taxi, Conduit, Nerve, Painted Bride Quarterly, Paragraph, Verse, La  Petite Zine and more. Many thanks to those who enthusiastically supported the proceedings.

Slope readings are being planned in Boston (in conjunction with the print release of Both Magazine, featuring work by James Tate, Tomaz Salamun and others); Montreal, Canada (in conjunction with Nerve.com and the launch of Chemise Magazine); and Melbourne, Australia. Check back for details.

Slope is growing! We welcome our new editors:

Peter Johnson, Contributing Editor (U.S.)

Peter Johnson is editor of The Prose Poem: An International Journal, which has gone on indefinite hiatus. He teaches at Providence College in Rhode Island, where he resides with his wife Genevieve and son Kurt. His recent publications are Pretty Happy!, a book of prose poems (White Pine Press, 1997); I'm a Man, winner of the Raincrow Press 1997 Fiction Chapbook Contest; and Love Poems for the Millennium, a chapbook of prose poems (Quale Press, 1998). He also compiled the recently- released The Best of The Prose Poem: An International Journal (White Pine Press, 2000).

Derek Webster, Canada Editor
Derek Webster’s poems have appeared in Agni, Natural Bridge, Pleiades, The New Quarterly, La Petite Zine, Pleiades, The Antigonish Review and Nerve. He served as Assistant Director of the  Writing Program at Washington University in St. Louis, where he received his MFA. He also worked  for two years as assistant editor to William Gass on Literary St. Louis: A Guide, and was senior editor and poetry editor for Boulevard. He lives in Montreal, where he is founding Chemise Magazine.

Christopher Janke, Managing Editor

Christopher Janke's work appears in Verse, Quarterly West, The Mid-American Review, Marlboro Review, Conduit, The Sonora Review and other magazines. He lives in Greenfield, Massachusetts.

Pamela Burdak, Managing Editor (West Coast)

Pamela Burdak's poems have appeared in magazines including Quarterly West, Third Coast and The Hollins Critic. She was awarded the 1999 Academy of American Poets Joseph Langland Prize, the Sloshberg Memorial Award for Accomplishment in Poetry, and the Jeannette Gottlieb Award in Poetry Writing. She currently lives in San Francisco.




WRITERS' GUIDELINES

The editors invite electronic submissions of 2 to 6 poems of any and all styles.

All submissions must be previously unpublished and accompanied by a brief biographical note. Unsolicited poems, reviews and poems in translation will be considered year-round.

Rights revert to poets upon publication. All poems (c) 2001 the poets. The editors kindly ask that poets credit Slope should their work be re-printed elsewhere.

Unfortunately, we can not at this time offer payment for any work accepted.




MASTHEAD

Editor & Founder: Ethan Paquin
Australia Editor: Michael Farrell
Canada Editor: Derek Webster
Contributing Editor: Peter Johnson
Managing Editors: Christopher Janke, Pamela Burdak
Designer: Steve Palmer, 76design